South Hadley residents speak out on bullying and lack of information about Phoebe Prince suicide at Selectboard meeting

Photo by Don Treeger / The RepublicanDavid V. Leonard, of South Hadley, speaks at the South Hadley Selectboard meeting at Town Hall where residents spoke out about bullying issues at South Hadley High School.

SOUTH HADLEY - A crowd of about 100 people filled Town Hall Auditorium Tuesday night where speakers criticized the lack of information in the Phoebe Prince apparent suicide case and expressed their concerns about bullying in the town’s public schools in general.

“We feel that everything gets swept under the carpet. People are looking for answers. People are tired of whatever it is they have been hiding behind,” Jeannine C. O’Brien told the Selectboard during a regularly scheduled meeting. “They want answers. We want answers.”

Selectboard Chairman John R. Hine extended the board’s normally five-minute public comment portion of the meeting to an hour to allow everyone who wanted to speak an opportunity.

What people wanted to know in particular was what discipline has been handed down by South Hadley High School to the so-called “mean girls” believed to have bullied 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, who was found dead at home of an apparent suicide on the afternoon of Jan. 14.

South Hadley High School principal Daniel T. Smith has his own investigation running parallel to the one by local police working with the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office. So far, Smith has said two students were disciplined before Prince’s death and a third was disciplined stemming from an assault on another student after Prince died. School officials have refused to say what the discipline consisted of, citing legal and privacy rights of the students.

The Irish native has been reported as having been bullied unmercifully with ethnic and sexual slurs. The slurs stemmed from her having dated a senior boy.

Prior to the start of the meeting, a female classmate of Prince said she is disturbed that the students believed to have bullied Prince are still in school. “I’m concerned about what is going to happen in this,” said the girl who declined to give her name. “I think they should get punished, and it should happen soon. Nothing really happened to them.”

Prior to the start of the meeting, state Rep. John W. Scibak, D-South Hadley, told reporters that he believes information about disciplinary measures handed down in response to the alleged bullying should be shared with the public.

Local contractor Joseph A. Marois prefaced his remarks before selectmen by stating: “I’m surprised there’s not more outrage about this. I saw the sun come up this morning. Phoebe didn’t.”

Marois was immediately asked by a Selectboard member to avoid any further references to Prince, a tack also taken last week at a School Committee meeting out of consideration to her family and in recognition that there is a police investigation in the works.

South Hadley resident Mitchell Brouillard said he was concerned by what he described as the School Department’s “inadequacy” in handling the case.

“I’m asking you as a resource to back us on this, to end this problem now,” Brouillard told the Selectboard. “South Hadley is not the only community that has this problem, but this is where I live, and this is where it’s going to stop.”